(VOVworld) – On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree suspending Russia’s free-trade agreement (FTA) with Ukraine as of January 1, 2016.

Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to sign the decree halting the enforcement of the FTA as from next January (photo:tass.ru)

The decree stated that due to exceptional circumstances affecting the interests and economic security of the Russian Federation, the president decided to sign the decree halting the enforcement of the FTA as from next January.

Moscow has repeatedly expressed concern that Ukraine’s FTA with the EU, which takes effect January 1, 2016, may flood its market with European goods and months of three-way talks with the EU to smooth things over have yielded no results. Russia vowed to seek measures to protect its economic interests even when it had to suspending its FTA with Ukraine to prevent the negative impact of EU’s duty free products imported to Russia.
The upcoming tripartite talks are scheduled next Monday. The Ukraine-EU agreement was signed last June while the Ukraine-Russia free trade deal was reached in 2011.